"On a farm, you have to put a lot of faith in God. He controls the weather, you always hope and pray for the best," Irene Land said. "People now a days don’t farm like we did, but they also don’t have as much fun as we did."
Circumstances in someone’s life shape and mold who they are. If you grow up in Atlanta, New York City or San Diego staring out at the hustle and bustle of a busy, shiny city, you may think that this is what life is like. Life is busy for everyone, everyone wants to be the CEO one day and life just does not slow down. There are some who have been cultured and who have also realized that life is not run like a business.
On the other hand, if you grow up on a farm in the early 1900s nestled away in the Appalachian Mountainside, you may come to resent your simple life or appreciate it. I have had a middle-of-the-road upbringing. My childhood home is situated on the outskirts of a micropolitan city (we had about 15,000 people when I was a child, maybe 20,000 now), we had some land, a garden, scuppernong vines, blackberries and my neighbors had horses that I grew up feeding and visiting.
Across the road were a few subdivisions. The interstate was a mile away and Walmart is nearly in my backyard. We did not live on a farm and we were not low income. However, with a dad that grew up on a southern Baptist preacher’s salary and a mother who grew up in rural Warner Robins, I learned through stories what it meant to have near to nothing. I was blessed enough, though, to have more than I ever needed growing up. In interviewing Irene Land, I believed we connected so well because even though I myself did not have a modest raising, I have a good grasp of what it means. She, however, did grow up in a life of physical and strenuous farm work. Mrs. Land, was a wonderful lady full of wisdom to pass on. Maybe, through the eyes of this one unique lady, you can answer for yourself if life has to be hard or easy.
1. Do we make life hard?
Let me give you a little background about Land. She was born and raised in Hiawassee, Georgia. She learned early on how to work the fields, gather eggs and appreciate people. She is nearly 80 years old, has been married for 59 years and I believe her appreciation for people and what she has been blessed with has only strengthened. She definitely has a sense of humor and a warm and inviting spirit.
If this speaks to anything, as soon as I pulled in the driveway, she was already giving me a hug and talking away about how she was looking forward to the interview. It was more or less just me listening to her life. She grew up with four siblings, in a Christian home and with two loving parents. When she got to be around the tween, early teenage years, she and her sister would make extra money by selling eggs, pulpwood and blackberries. It was to make extra money for buying items like salt and black pepper.
When she finished with all the many stories from her childhood about getting two oranges for Christmas, making her own balls to play baseball with and how her faith is the most important thing in her life she sat back and contemplated for a few seconds. She began by saying, “You know, when you walked down to the store you never dare got candy, you got what you knew you really needed, the necessities. People today don’t often get what they really need, they get what they want.”
I tend to agree with this statement. Maybe life is hard when people focus on material things. She has lived more years than myself and has had a lot of time to come to this realization, so maybe — just maybe — it is worth giving attention to.
2. What is a work ethic?
I have asked myself what a work ethic is before, and it is more complex than you might think. Is it working before you play? Is it having no fun and being all business? Is it having fun while you work? Is having a work ethic maybe just plain working hard to the best that you can?
Land knew a lot about a day’s labor, she knew what had to be put into farming to make the land give back what you put in. She also remarked, “No matter how tired we got, the thing you did was gather around momma and pray and thank God for another day.”
Farming is variable, so even when your timing is right and you tend to the land to the best of your ability, the harvest may not turn out to be what you thought. You are relying on the soil nutrient content, the weather, the seeds you plant and much much more. That is a lot to give over to God because the crops are a family’s livelihood. Remarkably, her words on work were, “People nowadays don’t farm like we did, but they also don’t have as much fun as we did.” Even with all the possibilities in the world to worry, they chose to put their worries on God. They put there all into their work, put their faith and trust in what mattered and did not worry.
I believe that they had more fun because they put more into life in general. They were invested fully and present no matter what context they were in and they were not fretting too much about bad outcomes. When they worked, that was where their heart and souls were. When they played, they were just as invested. “We made our own fun. We made truck wagons. We get up in trees and swayed back and forth. We made our own balls to play with, and found a stick for a bat.” It was a much simpler time for Land, but somehow it was full of wiser people.
Sure people did not make as much, but they worked and appreciated what they had. Maybe a good work ethic will not carry you into that CEO position, but with a solid work ethic you can learn to make the most of what you’ve been given and appreciate the work that goes into it, instead of grumbling.
3. What is happiness?
In Land's words, she said that it brought her great joy to know that she had two sons who knew the lord, and five wonderful grandchildren.That knowledge is her source of happiness. Her highest fulfillment in life, I believe, comes in her silent time with the lord where she prays for her grandchildren, her children, and all of the friends that she cares so deeply for. She walks nearly 40 miles a week! That is the time that she spends with God. She said that sometimes when she is walking she is overcome with joy and she raises her hands, in the road, to give him praise. She gives her full attention to God on her long walks, and she is a dedicated prayer warrior for many people in her life. She has lived a quiet life, just as God has instructed all of his children to do, and he has blessed her with great joy because of that. She said that much of her adult life, like her walking and outlook, had a lot to do with her childhood ties to farming. She said, “On a farm, you have to put a lot of faith in God. He controls the weather, you always hope and pray for the best.”
Simple, but powerful truth. No one knows when happiness will strike because it’s circumstantial and variable. If we are placing our faith and relying on him, then we are receiving joy in our waiting. Through waiting, I believe you learn that if God can bring you joy in the midst of the unknown, then he can turn any situation into something beneficial for your strengthening in the faith. Other people may see your circumstances and think that they are terrible, but God can make them joyful in the most mysterious of ways.
4. What's the point?
Land was to-the-point when I asked her why she walked. She said, “Walking is a wonderful thing to me. That’s my time to talk to God. It’s my time to thank him for his beautiful creation.”
It is hard to see where your actions can carry you before you’ve actually taken that first step. Many people don’t see the benefit in taking time to recharge themselves. It is almost reversed from the way it should be, but in college you are pulled so many ways. If you wanted to I am sure you could easily give the full twenty-four hours of your day to assignments, classes, friends, fun times, organizations, societies, or clubs. It is easy to be obligated to do a million things with the twenty-four hours in a day that you’re given. What is often hard is saying yes to listening to where the voice in your head leads you. You know when you need time to recharge, but you may not realize it because you ignore that voice time and time again. Listen to it because surprisingly when you recharge, you can pour more out. It may not be in any extravagant way, but where you are you will be more present. It is not revolutionary, but it is something to play with. What have you got to lose from going on a walk?
5. In conclusion ...
One final thing that I asked Land was what piece of wisdom that she would like to pass on. She actually answered this question within each response she gave because everything she said was tinted with some sort of practical advice. My “favorite” (imagine it in a slightly quirky southern Appalachian accent) was when she retold me her favorite thing to tell her children and grandchildren, “God gave them a good brain and if they didn’t use it, it was their fault and not God’s fault.”
Wow, truth. How many times do we follow our heart out of conjunction with our head? We do have brains, and we may have to expend some effort sometimes, but we do have them for the purpose of using them. In a “go with the flow” culture I believe our thinking capacity is often forgotten and underestimated. God allowed your brain to form how it did for a reason, despite the level of intelligence you either believe or do not believe that you have.
Think things through, match it to the truth of God's wisdom, seek out wise second opinions and you will often come to the best conclusion for you as an individual. Take the time to go outside and let your mind be still. Simply appreciate what you see for what it is because life can be strenuous, but it is often much simpler than we make it out to be. Most of all, from the wise old lady that I shared some tears with, a little laughter, and many smiles, “When things look down, look up.” Life is easy and hard, but try to not focus on the material realm because it may not take you where you want to be. If you find yourself somewhere where you want to be just look up and around; appreciate what you’ve been blessed with. If you find yourself in some unforgiving circumstances look up, look down and all around; find perspective and joy where otherwise you thought was impossible.
